The F Word

Last week, the Globe's Joan Vennochi wrote
about the media's reluctance to run ads criticizing Fidelity
Investments' ties with PetroChina, a Beijing oil company that's been
linked to the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

What
Vennochi's fine column didn't mention is the MBTA's skittishness on the
subject. If you've walked into or out of Park Street Station recently,
you may have been handed a postcard which urges Fidelity to divest from
PetroChina and features this image:

When
I mentioned this to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesatauro, he referred me to the
standards ("court-approved," he noted) used by Titan Worldwide to
manage the T's ad space. More specifically: Pesatauro pointed me to this particular section:

The MBTA shall not display or maintain any advertisement that falls within one or more of the following categories:

Demeaning or disparaging.
The advertisement contains material that demeans or disparages an
individual or group of individuals. For purposes of determining whether
an advertisement contains such material, the MBTA will determine
whether a reasonably prudent person, knowledgeable of the MBTA’s
ridership and using prevailing community standards, would believe that
the advertisement contains material that ridicules or mocks, is abusive
or hostile to, or debases the dignity or stature of, an individual or
group of individuals.

Pesatauro wouldn't specifically discuss the Save Darfur ads, so the
exact application of these standards is a little unclear. Is the worry
that people who invest with Fidelity might find the ads abusive or
hostile? Or that the ads might debase the dignity or stature of
Fidelity itself?